Look out England, the American Pharaoh is coming to visit and bringing his court with him.

Britain will get its first chance to see Barack Obama this week when a White House cavalcade – complete with armoured limousines, helicopters, 200 US secret service staff and a six-doctor medical team – sweeps into the UK.

More than 500 officials and staff will accompany the president on his tour this week – along with a mass of high-tech security equipment, including the $300,000 presidential limousine, known as The Beast. Fitted with night-vision camera, reinforced steel plating, tear- gas cannon and oxygen tanks, the vehicle is the ultimate in heavy armoured transport.

In addition, a team from the White House kitchen will travel with the president to prepare his food. As one official put it: “When the president travels, the White House travels with him, right down to the car he drives, the water he drinks, the gasoline he uses, the food he eats. America is still the sole superpower and the president must have the ability to handle any crisis, anywhere, any time.”

More unrest in Iraq; say didn’t we set a timetable for withdrawal here?? Hm-m-m…don’t suppose it could be related do you? The Shiite led government is chomping at the bit to have free reign and the Sunni‘s are tightening their ranks based on their tribal affiliations. Who could have seen that coming, huh? Oh yeah, the Bush administration…

BAGHDAD — U.S. and Iraqi troops exchanged gunfire Sunday with Sunni militants in central Baghdad in a second day of clashes following the arrest of a local leader of Sunni security volunteers who had broken with Al Qaeda.

Four people were killed and 15 wounded Saturday when fighting broke out after police arrested Adil al-Mashhadani, the head of an Awakening Council group in the Sunni neighborhood of Fadhil in the heart of the capital.

Five Iraqi soldiers were missing, possibly captured by Awakening Council fighters, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release the information.

Fighting tapered off Saturday evening. But an Associated Press photographer and a local shopkeeper said clashes erupted again Sunday morning, with both U.S. and Iraqi troops firing at Sunni gunmen.

Awakening Councils, or Sons of Iraq, are Sunni security volunteers who broke with Al Qaeda. They are now paid to supplement the army and police, helping guard their neighborhoods.

The rise of the Awakening Councils, which the Americans call Sons of Iraq, is considered a key step in turning the tide against the Sunni insurgency.

But Shiite political leaders have never fully trusted the Awakening Councils, many of whom were ex-insurgents.

Some Awakening Council leaders expressed fear that al-Mashhadani’s arrest could signal a crackdown on them by the Shiite-led government — a move that could send many volunteers back to the ranks of the insurgents.

The racists of the world are gaining traction; Brazil‘s president is among the first of many who will try to use race as a divisive issue in solving the economic crisis. As a white person with green eyes I of course fully agree that it is the blue eyed people’s fault! What a stupid attitude for a nation’s leader to take!

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday blamed the global economic crisis on “white people with blue eyes” and said it was wrong that black and indigenous people should pay for white people’s mistakes.

Speaking in Brasília at a joint press conference with Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, Mr Lula da Silva told reporters: “This crisis was caused by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing.”

He added: “I do not know any black or indigenous bankers so I can only say [it is wrong] that this part of mankind which is victimised more than any other should pay for the crisis.”

Mr Brown appeared to distance himself from Mr Lula da Silva’s remarks. “I’m not going to attribute blame to any individuals,” he said.

Mr Brown was visiting Brazil as part of a five-day tour of Europe, the US and South America in preparation for the G20 summit to take place in London next Thursday. He made a joint appeal with Mr Lula da Silva for the world’s biggest economies to provide $100bn to boost global trade.

“I’m going to ask the G20 summit next week to support a global expansion of trade finance to reverse a slide in world trade,” Mr Brown said.

Mr Lula da Silva also spoke out strongly against raising trade barriers in response to the global crisis. “I compare protectionism to a drug,” he said. “Why do people use drugs? Because they are in crisis and they think the drug will help them. But its effects pass quickly.”

The scum always rises to the top. This anti-american is a disgusting manipulator. He is suspected to be behind the tremendous increase in petroleum prices a few years back to force a public backlash against the Republicans so that a socialist leaning President would be elected thus forcing a recession (something he could short against). It looks like it is working like a charm for the old narcissist.

A hedge fund manager who predicted the global credit crunch has said the financial crisis has been ‘stimulating’ and the culmination of his life’s work.

In an unexpected turn of events, Senator Specter mistakenly takes the conservative side of an issue. I’m almost certain a retraction will be issued by his Senate staff by the end of the day. This is a rare turnabout for this RHINO.

Labor groups and Democrats had hoped the Pennsylvania senator’s backing of the legislation — commonly called the “card check” bill — would help supporters get the 60 votes needed to overcome a potential Senate filibuster and pass the measure, AP said.

Specter announced his intention in a floor speech, telling colleagues he recognized that the bill was “a very emotional issue,” AP reported.

It is ridiculous that this administration can’t get its advisors to meet, can’t get nominations made, and seemingly can’t make a public speech without scaring Wall Street half to death.

Six weeks after President Barack Obama appointed a blue-ribbon panel to help him dig America out of its economic crisis, the board has yet to hold an official public meeting.

The White House initially said that the 16-member Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board, headed by former Federal Reserve ChairmanPaul Volcker, would meet “every few weeks.” Last month, a spokesperson told POLITICO the group would meet monthly. More recently, the White House said the high-powered board, set up to address what Obama has called the worst economic emergency since the Great Depression, would gather only about four times a year, with the next session due in “late spring.”

But comments from board members and Obama himself indicate that some members of the panel are meeting, in smaller gatherings that have not been announced or opened to the public. And that raises the question of whether an administration that prides itself on openness and transparency is in fact finding it more convenient to conduct public business in private.

Now, the administration finds itself in a Catch-22: It does not want to say that the president’s economic panel, announced amid much fanfare, is not meeting during the worst economic crisis in generations. But if it is meeting, where’s the announcement, the agenda, the minutes? In short, where’s the sunshine?